Hey there people!Welcome to the second chapter of my lil fanfic!Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, it was small on purpose so this one is a little longer now.
Again I apologize for any possible grammar or spelling mistakes, I am not perfect, far from it in fact.
oh and the italics go for flashbacks
Optimus Prime
I couldn't believe it, had I not heard it from Ironhide himself I would have hit the slagger for saying such lies, yet, here we were, back on earth, with a sparkling still in deep recharge at the med bay on Ratchet's orders, and preparing.
Right now it was the preparing part that worried me the most, I was still having a hard time accepting the idea that Ironhide managed to contact the Ark, most of our fellow autobots apparently managed to run away inside it, this was, of course, excellent news, but also a security nightmare! It had been very hard to explain such a situation to Secretary Keller without making this seem like an invasion, that and the fact that we were sill miles away from having our base fully operational for so many mechs.
The humans had offered help but quite honestly? We couldn't accept it, besides size disadvantage it would be far too slow, they wouldn't know what to do and we would be constantly worrying if we were going to step on them.
The only humans we allowed nearby were the witwicky family, who, upon seeing Bumblebee's worry for Sam while he was absent suggested to camp nearby, not that they were really complaining, Sam seemed quite eager to see the ark coming down from the skies in its former glory, apparently Bumblebee had already told him a lot about it, then again it wouldn't surprise me, that was practically his home as a child, it was where we raised him when we found him.
I could still remember that day clearly…
searching all around for any possible survivors in the youth sectors, any at all.
To my disappointment it had seemed like every single femme, mech, youngling or sparkling ended their lives there.
I was about to head back to the ship when a streak of colour cought the corner of my optic. I was sure I had seen it, I didn't hesitate to pretend I didn't.
Overlooking the rumble once more I pretended to sigh and sat down on the remains of a wall. Again I saw that movement, something yellow had moved not too far away.
It was heading for me, still I pretended I didn't see him, I knew when to wait for the right moment.
As soon as I saw the next movement surprisingly close to me I turned around, my weapons out to aim at my attacker, only I found no one in the spot. Immediately I panicked thinking I had been tricked and turned around to try and spot him. I didn't have to look far because I heard a small little gasp coming from the ground and what I saw nearly made me jump back in surprise and fall on my aft.
A tiny yellow sparkling, well as yellow as it could still be that is, the painted had almost all been either melted or peeled off, presuming it survived a fire.
I stared for a while blinking my optics at him as he hid in a hole under the wall piece I had been sitting on. Slowly I relaxed, what was I expecting anyway? This HAD been a youth sector…this was exactly what I had been looking for! But the sneaky little bot had managed to surprise me that time. I crouched down to at least try to look less intimidating though it seemed to do no good for the young sparkling wouldn't come out of hiding.
"Its all right little one, I won't harm you, everything will be all right now." I said holding out my hand, beckoning for him to come. He looked at me with weary optics and then at my hand, as if he was deciding whether or not I was trustworthy.
Slowly it peered out of its hiding, its small little head looking up at me in alarm, no doubt he still wouldn't fully trust me, but at least he knew I was going to do him any immediate harm.
I was surprised when he even dared to touch the tip of my fingers, honestly I didn't think the hand trick would work, but this little mech…well…he was clearly a fearless little soldier, he would have given a very good spy I could already see that far.
"Is anyone else with you?" I asked, hopeful there would be someone, anyone.
The little sparkling looked up at me flinching away at the sound of my voice, but didn't run away at least, it stared as if he was trying to process what I was saying, apparently he was till very young, heck that explained his size at least, he was smaller than the ordinary mech or femme sparkling. After a few seconds his optics brightened as if he understood the meaning of my words, but as quickly as it came they dimmed and he looked back at the remains of the youth sector. I knew my answer.
"That's quite all right, come along; I'll take you somewhere safe." He seemed to hesitate, but then, slowly came over to my hand. As soon as he climbed on I felt a sharp twinge of pain in my spark, so incredibly clear, accurate, desperate, it was almost as if I had just felt the youngling's spark itself. I raised back to my full height refraining a chuckle when the small one let out a chirp of surprise and fear. "Don't worry, I won't let you fall down. Now, I believe a certain med bot would just love to meet you little one." He held on tightly to my digit as I started walking away, never looking back at the destruction we were leaving.
And indeed I was right; Bumblebee had become a brave young spy and soldier, an incredible trustworthy one at that. I knew I could count on the youngling for even more than he could handle.
My thoughts however were interrupted by the com link coming on and Ratchet's voice nearly piercing through my audio receptors.
"Prime!The sparkling is waking up, but she's having a sort of panic attack, I need help over here!" his distressed voice said to me.
Now that was an odd thing, usually Ratchet managed to strap down any bot that gave him a hard time at the med bay and never really needed help for it, not even with the twins.
"I'm on my way Ratchet, whats happening over there?" I asked as I heard a loud crash through the com link.
"The darn little thing is going on the fritz! Primus she's fast! I can't get a hold of her! She's too small so I'm afraid to hurt her! Bring Bumblebee with you! At this rate his the only one able to catch the femme."
Following his advice I signalled Bumblebee to follow me, and without questioning he left his share of the construction work and followed me, when we got to the med bay it was a surprise to see it almost turned upside down.
"CLOSE THE DOOR!" came Ratchet's desperate voice. We barely had any time to react as a small bolt of wires came running towards us passing right between my feet and over to the door. Unfortunately for the little thing, she was only the second fastest thing on the base. Bumblebee who stood right behind me caught her by the scruff bar just as she was about to make her exit.
The little thing was indeed going on the fritz as Ratch oh-so-politely put it, she began to kick toss and turn on her hold trying to get free and probably cursing in her sparkling language which consisted in chirps and whistles. Bumblebee raised her put to optic level to see the little thing better only to have her attempting to kick up with her tiny legs at his hand.
"Fierce little one isn't she?" Ratchet said as he neared and closed the med bay doors. "I haven't had such a cranky little one since Bumblebee was brought here the first time."
"Was I really this cranky?" he asked a bit doubtful, still staring at the struggling little one in his hold.
"Just as much" I told him agreeing with Ratchet
"Hope she won't be as much of a trouble as you though." Ratchet said heading over to retrieve the little one, but just as he did so she stopped her struggling and stared back at him in a death glare, something Ratchet was only used to getting when he was being a bit too rude with a femme. He stopped to wait for a reaction, but it seemed none other was coming.
"Aw come on little one, Ratchet won't do you any harm!" Bumblebee cooed, turning her around so she could face him. She seemed to shrink into a ball at his cooing tone. "That's a whole lot better! See? You don't like being cranky do you?" Her wide young optics stared at him for a while before darting over to me, then Ratchet, then back to Bumblebee as if evaluating our trust. Definitely a femme, one of the few ways I knew how to distinguish that from mechs when they were so young: Femmes tended to be more cunning.
"Now, if you don't want to get hurt, you better let Ratchet have a look at you, trust me, he's not one you want to go up against when it comes to check-ups." She stared back at him with a look that clearly said "is that a threat?!" to which I chuckled, gaining her full attention for the first time, before she only seemed to look at me because I was present and because of my size.
"He does have a point there; Ratchet can be a mean old mech if you don't let him treat you." I said to assure her.
"Will you two stop it?" the said medic bot snapped at us. "I'm not that bad!"
"Oh yes you are!" Bumblebee retorted with a snort. He had managed to put the sparkling down on his palm and surprisingly she didn't seem to want to run away, he however looked somewhat troubled, it was clear he was doing his best to assure the young one, but the truth was, this was the first sparkling he ever saw.
"Just keep her still like that, I just needed to do a quick scan anyway" he said as one of his optics zoomed in to scan the small form.
"She's trying not to shake too much" Bumblebee informed, keeping his optics on his palm as she stared up at Ratchet defiantly.
"How can you tell?" the old med bot asked not moving his scanners away from the small form, everything seemed all right apart form the fast spark rate she had at the moment, but that was to be expected since she was frightened.
The young yellow autobot seemed to ponder on this for a while, always staring at the back of the head of the little femme.
"I just can" he said simply thinking on the matter a bit better.
I raised an optic ridge at him, such things were always suspicious, I could feel the confusion in him quite clearly.
"Well everything seems just fine for now, other than the fear she's experiencing I don't have much to say." Ratchet informed moving away.
"Where's mother?" the small soft and tiny voice took us by surprise, we weren't expecting her to speak so soon. She looked around fearfully as if she finally trusted us enough to divert her attention elsewhere.
"Beg your pardon?" Ratchet asked turning around to look at her; he seemed just as surprised as we were.
"Mother!" she repeated indignantly, her faceplates scrunching into what was starting to look like an incoming tantrum. Sensing the immediate danger I approached Bumblebee holding out my hand. He let her slide off his although she looked quite reluctant to do so.
None the less she landed on my own palm and I raised her enough to meet my optics.
"Your creator?" I asked as calmly as I could, the news of a surviving femme were…nearly drastic…but then again, it was logical, how else would this sparkling had come to life? The allspark was literally gone. I was surprised to feel her increasing sadness and distress as she nodded, her mouth trembling as she was threatening to start crying. Her optics however were fixed on a spot in my hand, apparently intimidated.
"I'm sorry little one, we didn't find any spark signatures back where we found you, so I don't know where your ah….mother is. But I assure you we will do anything in our power to help you find her, is that allright?"
Small hiccups were my answer as her form started to tremble.
"Here we go…" Ratchet said turning off his audio receptors, and sure enough, not a second later a piercing screech nearly blasted my own as the little sparkling started to cry uncontrollably.
We quickly followed Ratchet's example turning off our own, I tried to calm the little one, rubbing a digit on her small helm between her two small antennae and then rubbing the back of her neck, this had an almost immediate soothing effect as her cries died down to small whimpers.
"Primus! That nearly tore my spark in half!" Bumblebee exclaimed as we turned our audio processors back on. Indeed it had been quite the spark wrenching experience, much like when Bumblebee was younger and would wake up screaming from nightmares he had from the youth sector, thankfully he could never quite remember them, he just remembered the fear he had. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the little one and cradled her against my chassis, where my spark could be heard if one paid close attention to it. This for some reason had always soothed the yellow bot next to me, and I was relieved to see it was doing the same for the young femme as she latched onto me as if her life depended on it. Slowly her optics went back offline as she fell into recharge and we sighed in relief, sparkling tantrums were always a nightmare.
"Well, you always did have talent in that area Optimus, ever considered getting your own?" Ratchet said with a dirty smirk on his face.
The result was a smack in the back of his head. " Don't say such things with a youngling present Ratchet…sometimes I wonder how you managed to raise me."
" Look at yourself and you'll see the answer" he said backing away before I could smack him again.
"Ah-ah! No violence in front of the sparkling either you lugnut. Now get out of my medbay! I need to clean this pace up after what she did." He said with a snort looking at the utter mess that lay waiting for him. "And take the sparkling with you, I don't want her to make another mess when she wakes up again."
This was the first time it came to me, where the hell were we supposed to keep the sparkling? We didn't have the base set up yet, the med bay was one of the first rooms we finished due to obvious priorities, we didn't exactly need our rooms yet as we could recharge in our alternate modes, but a sparkling couldn't transform yet, and it was a dire priority to protect it, if the deceptions were to ever find out about the little one...I dare not think of it, how could I have been so thoughtless? Where was Prowl when I needed him? Or even Jazz? My spark sank as I remembered my second in command who past away only a few months ago…still this was something I needed to sort out as fast as possible, this wasn't anything like raising Bumblebee. Raising another mech would be a challenge, raising a femme was a far cry from that, they were even more precious since we hardly knew any were left, so far we knew two of them were alive, my own sparkmate and Ironhide's. We knew through our bond they were still alive, though they had to be very far away for I could not sense her near whenever I tried to reach out to her.
"Sir?" Bumblebee's voice interrupted my thoughts; I drifted my gaze over to his expectant and worried optics. He still looked so much of a youngling to me, yet he was just about to step out of that phase…a few more human years and that'd be it.
"What is it Bumblebee?" I asked rubbing the bridge of my nose to clear my thoughts.
"I was asking where you were going to leave her. Shouldn't she stay with Ratchet in here?"he asked looking back at the med bay a bit uncertain with his own thoughts.
"No, leaving her there is just as dangerous as leaving her in a decepticon base, not only would our old friend fritz but the entire place is full of tools she could get herself hurt with."
Bumblebee frowned "I didn't think of that sir, sorry."
"Its quite allright, although I'm afraid I also don't really have an answer for your question either. We still have to finish building the priority structures for the base, but this young one is also as important…" then it hit me, I inwardly smirked at the thought, oh yes it was time for a little payback for all those years of mild suffering.
"I believe I might have come to a conclusion" I said, delaying the news so as to enjoy the moment, but it didn't seem like I needed to say much more, since he turned to me quite slowly with optics wide.
"Sir! You can't be serious!" Carefully I managed to detach the little femme's delicate hands from my chassis and handed her over to the small mech who accepted her with so much care it seemed like he was afraid she would dismantle.
"You are to be in charge of her from now on Bumblebee, at the very least until we have the base fully operational or until the Ark arrives."
"But I don't know anything about sparkling care!" he protested a bit too childishly.
"Just ask Ratchet for some files on it later, I have full confidence that you'll take good care of her, but if you happen to have any problems or any serious questions just ask." I said as I left him behind with a bewildered look on his face.
Bumblebee
I couldn't believe my commander just left me there with the sparkling in my arms, how was I of all mechs supposed to take care of her?! I knew nothing of sparklings, even less of femmes for that matter. She was just as small as Frenzy was for now, and by the looks of it was still very young, probably didn't even have her first upgrade yet since she only had her protoform and absolutely no paintjob, not that there would be much place to accurately paint anyway.
However I had to admit I was curious about her, as she clung onto my own chassis like she had done to Optimus before, only I felt her fear still nearby, Primus I had been nearly thrown out of the sky when she started crying a few minutes ago, my spark could feel every ounce of pain and distress in her own spark, I don't know if this is normal, normally this only happens between sparkmates, and usually I only felt this way when Optimus had very strong feelings which he rarely showed. So I usually thought that it was just because I was seeing him that way on the outside that I felt the same on the inside, but then why this little femme? I looked down to her face as her optics were still closed and sighed.
"Might as well find a good place for you to rest…I don't want to create a bad habit here, I'm not going to carry you everywhere I go." Just as I said this I couldn't help but smile when she snuggled closer to my spark. "Lets go see the Witwickys maybe their own young aren't so different from our own and they can give me some tips…"
I wasn't disappointed when I got there to see the humans having a good time with what they called a barbeque, I was still trying to find out what was so entertaining about it.
"Bee! Glad to see you again!" I was surprised by that voice as Mikaela came out from the trailer with a grin all over her face.
"Its nice to see you too Mikaela" I said crouching down to be at her eye level." When did you get here?"
"Oh, Ironhide went to pick me up along with the Lennox family, apparently they were attacked while Ironhide was away, I thought you knew that?"
I sighed in a bit of disappointment, as usual they kept these sorts of things away from me until I found out, and they probably didn't want me to worry even more about Sam.
Mikaela seemed to understand and didn't question me any more; her eyes though caught the sparkling in my hands.
"Hey what's that?" a bit of fear came to her eyes as she probably remembered Frenzy when he and Barricade attacked on our first face to face meeting.
"Ah…don't worry, this…is what we went to Saturn for." I said straightening up a bit so she could see the femme a bit better. "She's a sparkling"
" A…what-now?" she asked confused still unsure about the little thing.
"Sparkling, I guess it would be the equivalent to a baby or a very young child in your terms."
"You guys…can…you know….?" I tilted my head not fully understanding what she was getting at " Never mind….so how did she end up all the way in Saturn? Was anyone with her?"
"Um….no….and I would refrain myself from mentioning that around her" I said as I felt the little one shift in my arms. " Last time she wouldn't stop crying until Optimus managed to soothe her, nearly blew our audio receptors off." She nodded in understanding.
"So then, what are you doing with her?" I could only sigh even deeper as I felt a bit of desperation sinking in.
"I have no idea how to take care of her, I came to get some tips from you guys, hopefully taking care of her won't be as different as taking care of a young human."
"Well….I don't know about that…if she were human the first thing I'd tell you was to be a little more careful with bringing her outside, since babies tend to be very fragile to their environment." she said hesitating to get near.
"Its all right, she can't harm you, at least I don't think she can, and besides, she's in recharge."
"Why didn't you leave her in the med bay?"
"She messed up the place, so Ratchet doesn't want her there, not that I blame him, she could get hurt there."
"So… you have no where she can stay yet?" I could only sigh yet again as my response.
"geez bee, your already sounding like a frantic mother" she said with a big grin.
It took me a few seconds until I could fully comprehend what she said, but before I could argue back she interrupted me with a gesture of a hand.
"Don't worry, I'll help you, and Sam can help out too, not much to do here anyway…"
"I love you" I said out of my full gratitude, she snorted waving me off again and chuckled.
"Leave that to Sam."
I observed as she gathered up the Witwickys and explained the situation to them, I chuckled when I saw Sam yelp of surprised when Mikaela apparently explained to him that we could in fact have sparklings, though I didn't quite see where the surprise in that was.
Right after that he came over to me and asked when the hell did I become a father, I couldn't help but laugh heartedly at him nearly waking up the sparkling, but thankfully that didn't happen.
They went straight to work, pausing only when Ron said the food was ready so they could eat, apparently they had been extra cautious and brought enough supplies which they said I could use to let her sleep in my alt form when I myself needed recharge, other than that they had managed a good spot for her to sleep at outside, it was originally for Mojo so now the two had to share it, it was basically a pile of pillows and the young one seemed quite satisfied with the place.
"So…what's your daughter's name?" I stared back at Sam, he was still playing that joke on me.
"I don't know, she didn't get to tell us, and she is not my daughter Sam."
"Whatever you say big guy" he said with a sly smirk, to which I could only roll my optics. " You can rest if you want you know? We'll keep an eye out, if we really have to leave we'll wake you up."
"I appreciate that…its been a long day…"I said sitting back against a pine tree nearly my size and looked back at the recharging sparkling before I myself went into deep recharge.
Sparkling
It was with great reluctance that I woke up again, turning on my audio receptors before my optics so as to know if any danger was nearby, it was something I learned to do in my short time running away. My optic lids closed as I felt a tightness in my spark when I thought of that, where was my mother? Where was I? Who had those mechs been? Was I safe? These and many other questions went through my processor as I finally gained the courage to open my optics. It was a strange place, I was laying on something fluffy that had a strange scent, I looked to the side and nearly screamed when I saw the strangest creature right next to me, the result was a small "eep!" and myself falling backwards on my aft and out of the pillows. The creature started doing a strange sound, wagging its tail at me, I backed away and looked for a place to go, but it was very dark and the only place I could see light at was surrounded by miniature and strange furniture, well to me it was still big but to my kind it was small.
I saw figures near the fire and they turned to me as the creature behind me was still making a lot of noise. My spark raced and I attempted to run away into the dark just as a large hand blocked my way. I screeched in panic as it picked me up from the ground but calmed down once I felt it was trying to hold me with care, and not roughly like the decepticons had before.
"Its okay little one, no one is going to harm you, their friends." Came a soothing voice behind me, probably the owner of these hands. I couldn't help but tremble in fear and whimper, flashbacks of my escape still fresh on my mind. A large digit rubbed circles on my back relaxing me, even though I didn't want to. I dare to look back and saw it was the same mech that had held me by the scruff bar right when I was about to escape that med bay. He smiled at me, but that did little to soothe my suspicion. Down there on the ground were four strange figures, I couldn't see them very clearly because of the dark, the small creature was in one's arms still making that noise.
"W-what is that?" I asked, struggling with the first word, it had been some time since I spoke and I was still downloading my vocabulary files. I had no idea these creatures didn't understand my language either.
" That….thats Mojo, he is a pet, a dog if you will, and these four are called humans, their a bit primitive but they can manage to communicate pretty well, they just lack some experience and history." He said to me with a chuckle, it was clear he had full confidence with these creatures. Yet to me, they were still a menace, I knew nothing of them, and I probably had less history than them, right? "Don't worry, they mean no harm to you, in fact, they even tried to help, they settled up that place for you to recharge in, since we have no base at the moment." He told me. The humans asked something to him, and he replied in the same language, then they left off back to their own business.
"What did they say?" I asked eyeing them curiously, they weren't as big as most mech, and their structure didn't look that resistant, so it should be safe…
"They asked if everything was all right, they were worried." He slowly set me back down on the ground, something usually cybertronians didn't do to me, they tended to carry me everywhere, even though I disliked such a thing. "I don't believe we've met accordingly yet, my designation is Bumblebee." He said with a tender smile, somehow I couldn't help but smile back, as if his gentle and warm personality was making me happy in return.
"Buzzer" I replied back in return, he snorted in response looking up at the sky for lack of a better thing to do, this had to be the strangest care taker yet, he wasn't as careful as the others.
"I can only guess why….you have one mighty vocal processor." He tapped my head playfully to which I could only giggle in response; I couldn't help but trust him already.
"Mother always did say I was very vocal" but as I said this I felt my sadness again and felt myself tremble slightly.
"I'm sorry" he quickly said, almost as if he was feeling responsible for things. "Don't worry, Optimus will take care of things, we'll find out what happened."
"Optimus?" I asked recognizing the name, he himself seemed surprised at my reaction. "Optimus Prime you mean? He's here?" He slowly nodded looking as if he was trying to read my thoughts " Mother said we were heading to meet him."
"Your mother? You got Optimus's message?" There was no other explanation of course.
"Yes…mother and the others…they were really happy when we got the message. But as we came here…" I trembled again remembering what happened.
"Sh…there… you don't have to say anything if your not ready to okay?" though he seemed thoughtful on what I said.
"Was your mother on the Ark?"
I shook my head slowly, I had heard of that ship, but only in grown up conversations that I barely understood. He seemed a bit disappointed by this.
"Well maybe your mother managed to find the Ark, if so there's a slim chance she might be heading out way."
"Really?" I asked hope filling up inside me, he didn't seem that convinced himself but nodded anyway.
"Hope is the last to die" he told me caressing my antennae, funny how so many cybertronians seemed to like to do that to me, it was kind of ticklish so I giggled surprising him.
"Look…"he said a bit more seriously this time. " I can't promise much, I'm still a youngling so I know very little, especially when it comes to taking care of you, but fom today on you're my charge, at least until the ark comes, so I promise to do my best okay?"
"You mean you're my new caretaker?" I asked looking up at him innocently sitting down on a small rock, it was funny how we were so different in size comparison, though he was right, he did look quite young.
"For now at least. I need you to always stay near okay? We don't have our new base up yet so its not really safe out here and the deceptions might attack." I shuddered at the word and crawled over to his lap, he was a bit tense but I managed to crawl up just find so that I could sit on his lap.
"I didn't mean that close…you can move on your own" he chuckled a bit.
"I know...where are we exactly?"
"Earth, we're sort of making this our new home planet…for lack of a better option…"
I looked around weary of my new surroundings, I couldn't see very well, and I still didn't have night vision, so I really didn't want to stay away from the only thing protecting me around here.
"Its weird."
"It only looks that way now, wait till morning. It's a very nice planet actually."
"How nice?" I asked curiously as he laughed heartedly, I could feel the content in his spark, I only felt this around mother, how I missed her spark…
"You'll see little buzzer. For now just go back to recharge.." he said stretching his arms a bit and leaning back against the tree once more, ready to go to recharge himself.
I tried to get comfortable in his lap but it was incredibly hard, so I climbed up to my second most favourite place: the shoulders where I could sleep calmly.
Well, hope this was entertaining, right now I'm writing the second chapter so it should be up soon enough.
Again if you would like to get clarified on anything that involves transformers vocabulary I posted a link to a dictionary in the first chapter. So there should be no problems with that. R&R